Early Rising Sun

markkur · Feb 3, 2016

“Early Rising Sun”
{A 10%er}

markkur · Feb 3, 2016

The Early Years - Chapter One

If there is one thing that I enjoy about Hearts of Iron 3 it’s that there are many ways to play this game and sometimes even when replaying a nation, events fire a wee bit different.

Since I had not planned to do this, this AAR will be mostly a text document and not much of a show. Since I started with the idea of playing the game and not making an AAR I will write about events that have already happened, with some long past. I began this game as Japan in 1936 without any grand plan or even casual intent, just playing the game under the strictest RW timeline possible. (my typical game)

Start-up was heavily focused on the research and building of planes and ships with the overall focus towards creating a strong navy supported by elite & deadly CAGs, MRs, and Naval Bombers. I did nothing with spies other than raising threat on National China knowing I would be at war with them soon. Probably no sound reason, I just did it.

For starters I triggered “Prepare for War” and aligned to Germany. Japan’s cabinet is this; Our Head of State is the peoples beloved emperor Hirohito and he chose his friend Okada Keisuke as his Head of Government. This gives us a boon to IC but a debit to money, even if we save a little in consumer-goods during peacetime. As you will see, we’ll not save much there.

Since we wanted to let the world know we were in lock-step with the new powers in Europe, Hirota Kota was selected for the post of Foreign Minister. His Axis-leaning is well known and to this government desirable. The next man elevated to power was Machida Chuji because whether at war or peace his selection would reduce the need for consumer-goods and keep more IC at work making what Japan needs for her quest of being “the #1 power in the Pacific”. Minster of Security was the Prince of Terror Fujie Keisuke, a man that is not someone to slight. Japanese Industrialist clamored for Takuro Shiro and he was chosen as Head of Intelligence. Many leaders were a little dismayed to find the important post of Chief of Staff could only be filled with men focused on defensive strategy; Japan’s ambitious future plans rather screamed for a man more offensively minded. Our Chief of the Army was Sugiyama Hajime and his Decisive Battle focus on artillery seemed to all the right man, at least for the near future. Our goal of having the world’s best Carrier Fleets is common-knowledge and Osumi Mineo is the man to lead that type of Navy. The Air-Force is under the command of one of the visionary thinkers, not only in Japan but in the world, Yamamoto Isoruku. His passion is on Naval-engineering and formidable Navy Bomber strength. For several reasons, many depend on this man, not only for his greater expertise but also his experience in living in the United States for a time. We hope he has the insight that we need for a war with the Americans.

Trading, I did myself and like all players of Japan immediately began selling 50 supplies to the USA; never allowing my Supplies to be “in the Green” once I was past the first month. Knowing that to have all my eggs in one basket would not be a good idea when late 1941 rolled around, I also managed to sell some supplies to other nations.

Note: set up deals with the U.S. from the start OR, since the world economy heavily depends on selling supplies to the Americans, others will get in ahead of you and Japan’s coming up with the needed cash for stockpiling resources will be a lot harder. One other minor note; since Siam will be in the fold eventually, I do not hesitate to buy Fuel from them. (Edit=

usually)

Early on, Netherlands supplied most of my needed Rares, with Italy too to some measure and because of this I knew Netherlands would be an early target; when instead of buying nearly all my Rares from them I would take that resource for myself. Oil came from many places but mostly from the U.S. due to price. I also pursued some other nations like Persia and Romania to have a little diversity when the U.S, would embargo my aggressive nation. Over time I began buying a larger amounts of metal from the Soviets knowing war with the U.S. would not change those deals.

I played on Speed-5 until the war with China came.

Forster · Feb 4, 2016

And here we are.

You should put a link to this in your question in the forum, that way some one reading it there will be able to jump right to it.

sebas379 · Feb 4, 2016

I'm in, good luck!

markkur · Feb 4, 2016

Thanks men! I gave the link Forster...good idea.

I've already learned one thing; it's much easier "for me" to write an AAR on the fly then doing this back-track bit.

thexmassteam · Feb 4, 2016

In

thanks for the AAR!

markkur · Feb 5, 2016

thexmassteam said:
In thanks for the AAR!

Thank YOU...it's fun to do anyway.

The War with China and Shanxi - Chapter Two

Needs prior to the DOW
* I only had 33 convoys after getting trading in decent shape.
* My Infantry had no artillery
* Too few Destroyers and Light Cruisers.
* Plenty of Garrisons for war deployment.
* ASAP…More CVs to create the backbone of my Navy.
* I knew I also had to be thinking about having a fair amount of Militia to contain partisans in a large nation like China. I.e. Preventing uprisings in provinces with needed resources and also the two strategic-resource provinces.
So at this time everything above was in the production queue, in series-production, except Militia; they would be built in one-shot and have to wait until I had adequate garrison forces. Only part of the Artillery would deploy in time for this war. The CV Ryujo and CAGs would be ready 9 Dec. 1937 and Akagi and Amagi would eventually follow in subsequent production.

Preparations

When the war came I was prepared for it but had added nothing to my ground forces, because I guessed (correctly) that I had enough men already. Earlier, I had pulled all troops off the Soviet border and deployed them in proper fashion along the Shanxi & North China borders. Of course I had previously rebuilt the OOB eliminating far too many supply-wasting HQs. If I am playing a game in Europe then I will do a full-blown OOB but in this game where much smaller forces have to be used I went with Theater HQ (when new deployments could reach no existing Theater) and assigned the best Logistics-Wizards to the Theaters. In China I added 2 Army commanders and 1 Army-Group but this was the only time I would have a normal OOB. Crappy terrain, bad weather etc. combine to make trying to keep single units in range as they march on “painting jobs” a waste of time for me. The first time I will have a full blown OOB is when I invade Russia. “Divide and Conquer” is a great strategy but it’s not much fun when you have to “Divide to Conquer.”

In preparing for the war besides setting the OOB, I took another measure and that was building GAR units to quickly deploy to any port in an effort to keep fighting-men in action and not pulling guard duty. In addition to this however, I also wanted to well protect every city on the mainland and greater Japan. This meant that several GAR-divisions of three brigades were built and additional units could be freed from home soil since Imperial Guards were going to do more than guard the Palace; Elite horsemen can do well in vast terrain. And since I’d never played Japan before I did not want those guys sipping Saki and enjoying Teriyaki-cuisine while the other fighting men were toughing-it-out in combat.

When setting up my fleets, one thing was clear, my Navy seriously lacked the needed screens, in planning for greater than a one to one ratio of Capitols to Screens; so my Naval build-priority targeted Destroyers and Light-Cruisers. However wise my choices were, I also had this nagging concern that centered on getting Air-craft Carriers in production. Anyone that thinks they will eventually be exchanging salvos with the Americans is going to be thinking the very same thing; “I want lots of Combat Air Groups and I want them now not later”. However, that’s not how War works, we just need too much of everything at once, which we cannot possibly build. Hard decisions must be made and delays endured until you know you have to hit the “Start-button” or you‘re toast.

One last thing I should add is Artillery was one troop focus and though I did not get all I wanted built in time, about half of the 21 Inf-divisions had big-guns with them in the China war. Unfortunately, poor planning on my part meant my advanced techs for those field-cannons finished too late to be upgraded, so the army had to use old weapons from the last war, which was better than nothing, since nothing is what the Chinese troops had with them.

Overall command of the war was given to General Dohihara at Kwentang HQ. Dohihara is a Logistics Wizard and skill 3 general. Next in the chain of command was an Army-Group (forgot that screen) and on the ground with the troops were General Yamashita (Japan’s most skilled commander) leading 1st Army and General Hata commanding 2nd Army. The rest of the OOB was this;

*1st Army* General Yamashita (20 Div. - 168k men)
1st Infantry Corps - General Fujie
15. Hoheishidan (Izeki)
17. Hoheishidan (Asaka)
37. Hoheishidan (Yumada)
36. Hoheishidan (Sugiyama)
48. Hosheishidan (Yuhi)
2nd Infantry Corps - General Tojo
06. Hoheishidan (Anami)
03. Hoheishidan (Umezu)
13. Hoheishidan (Okamura)
61. Hoheishidan (Araki)
26. Hoheishidan (Inagaki)
3rd Infantry Corps - General Yanagawa
10. Hoheishidan (Shizuichi)
28. Hoheishidan (Makino)
20. Hoheishidan (Nishio)
19. Hoheishidan (Minami)
Second Cavalry Corps - General Imamura
1. Moukogo Kiheishidan (Kimura)
3. Moukogo Kiheishidan (Itagaki)
2. Moukogo Kiheishidan (Horii)
First Cavalry Corps - General Homma
4. Moukogo Kiheishidan (Ando)
5. Moukogo Kiheishidan (Sakai)
6. Moukogo Kiheishidan (Yuyoushi)

*Second-Army* General Hata - 4 Inf.-Corps - 16 Div. - 155k men.
4th Infantry Corps - General Uchiyama
09. Hoheishidan (Hyakutaki)
12. Hoheishidan (Koiso)
01. Hoheishidan (Shima)
11. Hoheishidan (Kawabe)
7th Infantry Corps - General Yokoyama
52. Hoheishidan (Nishio T.)
16. Hoheishidan (Hasebe)
02. Hoheishidan (Cho)
05. Hoheishidan (Kataoka)
5th Infantry Corps - General Ishiwara
14. Hoheishidan (Nishio T.)
26. Hoheishidan (Hasebe)
08. Hoheishidan (Cho)
22. Hoheishidan (Kataoka)
6th Infantry Corps - General Sakabara
23. Hoheishidan (Nishio T.)
04. Hoheishidan (Hasebe)
07. Hoheishidan (Cho)
53. Hoheishidan (Kataoka)

General Hata’s four Infantry Corps sat in ports waiting for deployment in China. The ports of Sasebo, P’yongyang, Mokp’o and Gaoxiong held these invasion-forces and each port had a dedicated 4 vessel transport fleet at anchor that would carry 1 Corps and if they had artillery.

The war plan (early July 1937)
I opted to go for what I will call a mixed plan. Meaning, I wanted my officers and troops to gain valuable experience but had no intention of milking the conflict and stretching it out as long as possible for the obvious benefits. The result was I set a large enough force to advance into China and also conquer Shanxi. As I’ve already mentioned I also used my numerical advantage to invade along the Chinese coasts and put pressure on the Chinese army from multiple directions.

The first thing that had to be considered was the Chinese fleet and after a few clashes, as usual, they were reduced to small surviving squadrons, that would be sunk by the invasion-fleets. I also exercised our SS squadrons and they were able to get a little experience sinking convoys.

The outcome
The northern attack went very well. My 5 Tactical-bombers had previously been based in Dalian and they were used to assault any and all concentrated force, especially along the rivers that 1st Army had to cross. Soon Yamashita’s force advanced deep into China and the Cavalry Corps that he had dedicated to the war against Shanxi achieved a rapid victory over China’s ally.

At this stage it was time to launch the “port-offensives” since Japanese intelligence assured high-command that most of China’s forces were in the north of the country trying to stop 1st Army’s advance. The first landing was at Qingdao where Sakabara’s 6th Corps immediately spread out and trapped 1 Chinese infantry division. The Imperial Guards division saw its first action when it quickly moved to block their escape.

A look at General Yamashita’s issued-orders on 21 July would reveal that 1st Army was setting up Corps HQs in Shijiazhuang, Kenli, Yangquan and Taiyuan. Also on this date, Jinan fell and Japan’s Tokyo Imperial Headquarters announced the creation of Mengkukuo.

The next port to see Japanese troops was Lianyungang where 4th & 5th Corps moved very quickly across the plains and claimed a large area. 7th Corps commanded by General Yokoyama soon landed and deployed to the south allowing 4th & 5th Corps to spread west and link-up with one of Yamashita’s leading Corps arriving from the north. The merging of their flanks created a pocket that trapped several Chinese divisions and allowed a larger front line to be formed. After the defeat of the trapped units, a concerted drive to the southwest began to rapidly crush resistance.

After a long redeployment from Shanxi, Imamura’s 2nd Cav captured Xi’an on 21 August as the entire Chinese northern front collapsed resulting in a few divisions being overrun by Japanese troops. The combined attacks from 1st Army in the north and 2nd Army in the east rolled-up the Chinese front.

The last moves
Lucky 7th Corps was redeployed but still met little resistance when they landed in an undefended Shanghai. After marching to Hangzou and Ningbo, they were given a new objective; 7th Corps would protect these 2 ports but two divisions would split-off and sail south to secure the ports of Fuzhou and Xiamen. Once Xiamen was occupied the war ended. General Hata’s 2nd Army had captured seven Chinese ports and in the process, the remainder of the Chinese Navy had been sunk. I think the war ended in early November 1937. Sorry I cannot be more precise.

sebas379 · Feb 5, 2016

Excellent conquest of China, making good use of Japan's advantages in quality and navy whilst avoiding a drawn-out conflict. Are the warlords next on the menu or will you ignore them to keep threat down?

Oh yea, I assume you went for full conquest of China, not just the coast?

markkur · Feb 5, 2016

sebas379 said:
Excellent conquest of China, making good use of Japan's advantages in quality and navy whilst avoiding a drawn-out conflict. Are the warlords next on the menu or will you ignore them to keep threat down?

Oh yea, I assume you went for full conquest of China, not just the coast?

TY. I will only take out the one sitting around Hong Kong. Yes I did take all of China and it's healthy partisan activity proved not too troublesome but only because I planned well to meet the hassle. As you know China is far to VAST to simply deploy a MIL or 2 and expect to keep it under wraps. CAV take a long time to move across that landscape and I am not building MOT. I didn't want to have a rebel state the size of Hungary because I lacked the needed garrison/patrol forces to keep outbreaks contained.

Btw, Had I have remembered to set a second WG would the "Coast" have been an option then?

sebas379 · Feb 5, 2016

The coast is the default wargoal in the tfh expansion. That one is set if you declare war with the event. I normallly set a full conquer wargoal on top of it so i get the interior too.

Forster · Feb 6, 2016

Are you going to be able to give us any maps showing what you are doing once you get caught up with the narrative?

thexmassteam · Feb 6, 2016

Nice move.
What have you done with the IC boost of the war, did you build your Gar. or Mil. ?

markkur · Feb 6, 2016

Forster said:
Are you going to be able to give us any maps showing what you are doing once you get caught up with the narrative?

Good question. I haven't decided on anything yet, it's been a tedious bit backtracking through a maze of saves. I have thought that maybe a grand shot of the stages/years of the unfolding of my empire would be a good catch-call. I also have a few pics I made for fun.

What would you guys most like to see?

markkur · Feb 6, 2016

thexmassteam said:
Nice move.
What have you done with the IC boost of the war, did you build your Gar. or Mil. ?

I'm a Garrison-Powerhouse.

I have not dwelt on the subject of my game/house-rule much yet but my requirement of at least a GARx2 on every island and every port has made a much different game than I have played before. (playing Japan with this rule) I will soon be talking about that in greater detail.

markkur · Feb 6, 2016

In between the wars

I don’t have a lot on information here but I don’t think much is very necessary. I’ll just make a bulleted list and leave it at that.

* During peace, enough Infantry were left in China to guard ports that had not received a garrison unit yet and also to protect all provinces with resources and the critical strategic resources, Aluminum & Horses. Japan starts with only the vital Dockyard.
* All ports were eventually garrisoned with GAR x2. Since Shanghai was the HQ it had a GAR x3 garrison. I treat all theater HQs as very important. All Garrisons and Militias reported to this HQ, as well as the Infantry still in China waiting for Militia deployment.
* Once the Militias {MILx2+MPx1} were in place, the remaining infantry marched to the coast. I left my 2 CAV corps to assist in China’s vast lands in the far west.
* Sometime after the war ended I was asked to join the Axis. At the time I didn’t really think about it; I was going to be an Axis nation, so I joined the Axis.
* Work continued on Destroyers, Light-Cruisers and Carriers.
* With building a solid occupation-force and concentrating on the Navy, both Air and Army units were delayed. After China was secure I then began to work on 2 MAR-Corps with ENG support, 1 MTN-Corps, I LC fleet and I think one INT-wing x3.
* I targeted Research heavily with my available Leadership, only protecting Japan with 3 ticks of CE and 2 ticks in NU.
* “At some point” I did make one change to the Cabinet, I appointed the resource specialist Ikeda Shigeaki as Armaments-Minister. It was easy to see Metal and Rares might be a problem long term. Thankfully the increase in Consumer-goods was offset to some degree by my concentration on war-machines instead of troops.
* I should probably say what I gave no priority to and that would be ARM, BC, CVL, AT, and CAS. Regarding research, of course I avoided all Land-techs that were about Armor and the Spearhead Doctrine.
* My Research targeted a modern Navy and Air-force with my chief concentration towards CAG and NAV quality and of course I didn’t overlook the quality of my Infantry and Artillery once I had some screens for the Navy and a decent amount of MRs to fly.

As the unexpected war neared, both Plane and Pilot techs were not only current but many were ahead of schedule. My convoy fleet was now large at just under 300. More had been started but were pushed down into the queue to await those times when you might as well plop one in, to not spend 5% of the IC needed to build another plane etc.
Anyway, even though I thought I had years left to prepare and I was not ready for war…I was ready for war. <S>

With hindsight, I could have built a lot less convoys but at the time the Allies were sinking them left and right and the large U.S. submarine fleet was not even in the war yet. Better safe then sorry.

Note: I am making a world map that will show "conquests by years" and will post it once I am caught up to the moment I DOW the Soviets. From there I'll see about making the AAR more visual.

sebas379 · Feb 6, 2016

Sounds like a solid, conventional japan start, focussing on the nations strenghts. Looking foward to the major war.erupting.

Forster · Feb 7, 2016

I don't think anyone will complain about year end maps. It would be nice though, if you started more visuals once you are caught up to the time you are now in game play. Or, are you saying you are at the point in the game where you will declare on Russia?

markkur · Feb 7, 2016

sebas379 said:
Sounds like a solid, conventional japan start, focussing on the nations strenghts. Looking foward to the major war.erupting.

Me too. I really interested to see if my plan to eliminate the entire Pacific ends up being worth the huge GAR investment needed to get it done.

markkur · Feb 7, 2016

Forster said:
Or, are you saying you are at the point in the game where you will declare on Russia?

Yes and no.

I still have to cover Japan vs France and Britain but I have not played the game another minute since decided to backtrack for an AAR. I usually do not save that much but this time I had endless saves and it's made going backwards a serious chore. I'm almost caught up now and then I can see how my "IJN Fortress Pacific"

works.

serutan · Feb 7, 2016

Did Khalkin-Gol bring the Germans in, or did Barbarossa bring you in w.r.t. the Soviets?

Early Rising Sun

General

General

Field Marshal

Marshal of the Soviet Union

General

Lt. General

General

Marshal of the Soviet Union

General

Marshal of the Soviet Union

Field Marshal

Lt. General

General

General

General

Marshal of the Soviet Union

Field Marshal

General

General

Major